Paul Curcio, the producer of Metallica’s historic debut album Kill ‘Em All, died of heart failure in St. Petersburg, Florida on September 10th, reports Saby Reyes-Kulkarni of Billboard. Curcio was 74 years old.

In an interview conducted with Billboard earlier this year, Curcio recalled that then-Metallica manager and Megaforce Records founder Jon “Jonny Z” Zazula chose him, basically, because Curcio was willing to book the session at an inexpensive rate. To the best of his memory, the project was budgeted at a lump-sum total of $15,000 for about 17 days’ worth of work. Of course, no one involved had any inkling that they were about to make history, but looking back Curcio said he was quite proud of the album and of Metallica’s success. “We were all part of making one of the greatest albums of all time,” he recalled.  

Learn more at this location.

Kill 'Em All was released on July 25th, 1983. It's since been certified Platinum in Canada, Gold in The United Kingdom, and Triple Platinum in The United States.